Thursday, May 29. 2008

Bentley Wants Leadership Role in Energy Analysis Solutions

Bentley intends to be the market leader in energy analysis and simulation as well as supporting a better means for building efficiency. Citing its reseller agreement with Environmental Design Solutions Ltd for its Tas software, Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems said at this week's BE Conference in Baltimore that, "the product’s virtue is its enormous scalability. With Taz software [you have] a complete building information model (BIM) with energy standards."

For Bentley, 2007 was a record year for technology acquisitions which will support this vision – LEAP Software (analysis and design for concrete bridges; ProConcrete available at the end of 2009); ECT International Inc (electrical control systems; reducing electrical design time); Hevacomp Ltd. (virtual energy models and software tools for electrical design for promoting low energy solutions; it is the largest UK building services provider and also produces HVAC solutions to improve energy efficiency of buildings.

Bentley Cited as #2 Geospatial Provider by Daratech

Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems cited a report from Daratech, the market research firm, that had named his company the #2 provider of geospatial software in the world. In the report, Daratech puts ESRI @ ~$540 Million and Bentley at ~$200 Million in revenues for geospatial software. Bentley said, "There is not any avenue of our solutions that is separated from geospatial."

Wednesday, May 28. 2008

Google Earth Becomes a Browser Plugin

That from Brady at O'Reilly Radar. It's being announced today at Google I/O, a developer event. Oh, only on Windows. [Removed: "And, no imagery yet. (huh?)" I misunderstood post, as noted in comment below.]

Is this a big deal? Does making it a plugin vs. a standalone app matter that much?

The one minute intro video is below.

Gates Wants to Map Africa

In a Q & A before he retires from Microsoft on July 1, Gates mentioned that project. From C|net's coverage:

He is also involved in a project to map all of Africa, using Microsoft resources as well as contributions from Gates himself and his foundation.

I wonder if they'll use the Vexcel cameras?

The Q & A occurred before his keynote (with CEO Ballmer) at the Wall Street Journal's D conference. That's where the new touchscreen capabilities for Windows 7 were demoed. Interested in that? Video here.

via BetaNews

Quote of the Week

"Another piece of the international iPhone puzzle has been jammed into place. When we detailed the contracts signed between Apple and telcos worldwide, there was a conspicuous gap in the map, above and to the right of Western Europe."

- Charlie Sorrel in Wired's Gadget Lab blog, noting a "hole" in iPhone coverage will be filled by a new contract between Apple and TeliaSonera, to cover the geography in question, the Nordic and Balkan regions.

Rolta Looking to Buy US BI Firm

In the latest of too many articles, the Indian press notes a potential Rolta by in business intelligence, though its expertise is in geospatial technologies. It acquired Orion Technologies last year. Does this have implications for location intelligence?

- The Economic Times